SUITMA 2005 Cairo - Urban soils, soil sealing and soil conservation service in the soil thematic strategy of the European Commission
SUITMA 2005 Cairo
| This abstract is about the plenary presentation by Wolfgang Burghardt of the SUITMA 2005 symposium. |
| Wolfgang Burghardt.i |
- i - Department of Soil Technology, University Duisburg – Essen, Essen, Germany.
Policies about water, air and wastes have already a longer tradition in many countries, regional and municipal bodies. But soil was neglected. Adoption of new fields of soil use was not performed. Among the specific articles on Thematic Strategies of the sixth Environmental Action Programme (6EAP) of the European Commission and adopted by the European Council and the European Parliament on 22 July 2002 are beside other areas soils. This marks the start of a European soil policy.
In stage 1 definition of the problem[1] was established, in stage 2 the strategy itself, including general objectives and specific targets, and means to achieve the objectives and monitoring instruments. In first attempt themes of soil erosion, contamination, loss of organic matter, monitoring and research should be topics. By intense discussion and the readiness of soil science to contribute to extended themes of soil thematic strategy additional fields of interest for soil management and protection were allocated. Among these were soil sealing which could be broadened by inclusion of soils of urban areas, soil use and soil use planning.
Another theme of interest for urban soil science is the demand for an establishment of an institution for sustainable soil use, soil improvement and protection; extend by the today aspect of soil use. For that purpose the criteria for a modern Soil Conservation Service were presented.
The most important point is soil consumption by soil sealing and excavation. About sealing definitions, types, classification schemes, dependences from land use, de-sealing opportunities are reported. The main research questions concern sealing threshold values, soil consumption and socio-economy, effects of sealing, data collection and monitoring of sealing, rationales of convention on soil consumption, quality aspects of sealing.
The report on soils of urban areas deals with the socio-economic forces and the factors behind this forces, changes of soils by new substrates from man - made materials, soil morphology, chemistry, compaction etc., the impacts such as contamination and many others, state of urban soils for substrate definitions, natural and new soils in the urban ecosystem, survey instruction and urban soil maps, amount and quality of soils, and response by soil data acquisition and processing, pilot projects of soil survey to get a real overview of existing soils and prove methods, to define soil protection targets in cities and perform soil protection.
Modern soil conservation should be not only based on traditional objectives such as soil fertility protection and development. Due to the fact that most people of the world are in many countries already living in cities or will do this in the near future it is important to make eco - services and functions of soils and demands for health, wellness, recreation, safety, waste disposal, water wining and discharge, habitats to main objectives of Soil Conservation Services.
